The sheer, bloody minded bastardry which comes from being a Scots/Irish hybrid. Plus, it's just so fun to beat the ever loving **** out of people who are beating the ever loving **** out of me right back, though the latter happens in much greater quantities than the former. Still, even being a human heavy weight bag is damn fun.

Oh, and as for what keeps me working hard in class--the threat of shame due to failure or not keeping up.

Hehe I do the same. As a 36 year old judo beginner I always try to look unbothered even after prolonged rounds of randori. (Although I cheat a bit -- I have years of ukemi practise, which really helps.)

Yeah, I know, 36 years is not really old, but getting back in shape after breaks is more hard work now than five or ten years ago.

I train just because it's fun. I love my Judo class, I love rolling, I love fighting, I love the confidence and easy self-assurance you get from knowing that if you were ever in a fight, you'd know exactly what to do (and have done it all a thousand times). That's why i want to improve and be successful in martial arts (BJJ/Judo).

Wanting to improve and be successful in Randori makes me want to be physically fit, too, so basically martial arts is the table leg holding up my body from turning into a fat sack of nerd (alternatively, a stick-thin spaghetti man).

"[Fighting for Points] is doubtless very pretty, and invariably draws applause, but preferences should always be given to blows that do some business, to good straight hits that do something toward finishing the fight.
A man who has carefully trained for brilliant tapping play, will find himself considerably out of it in case he is called upon to do any real work."
-A.J. Newton, Boxing.